Are you a freshman at Seton Hall this fall? If so, in addition to your dorm keys and student ID, a nice new Nokia Lumia 900 is waiting for you. The New Jersey college will issue every member of the incoming Class of 2016 a phone through its Mobile Computing initiative.

Seton Hall has given out mobile devices in the past, although in much smaller quantities. In the 2008-09 and 2009-10 school years, students in various programs were issued Nokia smartphones and Amazon Kindles, and in 2010-11, Apple and Android tablets were handed out to those in select majors.

The Lumia 900 giveaway is the first time an entire class will be issued a device, though. Terms of the deal between the school and Nokia weren’t disclosed, but it appears to be born out of Seton Hall’s partnership with both Nokia and Microsoft. And hey, if the Lumia 900 ends up not selling to well, at least Nokia has somewhere to get rid of them.

Making Freshman Life a Little Bit Easier

All devices issued by the university have access to an app and service called SHUmobile, which gives students access to campus news, directories, and maps. Freshmen will gain additional features that include social-media functionality.

Freshmen students will be able to communicate with each other and their advisors through the app, which also includes housing and roommate information. The new features seem targeted to making those first few days at college and away from home a little less stressful.

We also can’t deny the gigantic role that technology is beginning to play in our lives, and especially among younger users. This changes the game a bit for educators when it comes to finding ways to use technology effectively in education.

"Mobile technology has become ubiquitous and pervasive, but we are just beginning to understand the breadth of its impact across campus,” says Seton Hall Center for Mobile Research & Innovation academic director Michael Taylor.